Day Of Infamy: The Attack Of Pearl Harbor

Quan Nguyen
English II – Shaheen
MW 2:30-4

"Day of Infamy"

On December 7 of 1941, Japanese airplanes attacked the naval base of Pearl Harbor with a horrendous attack. With this, the 32nd president of the United States, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, gave his famous speech. Shortly after this, the British and United States declared war on Japan. Not so long after, Germany declares war on the United States. The attack of Pearl Harbor is to be said as the starting mark of America into the war of World War II. Now technically, the war started earlier in about 1921-1922, when Adolf Hitler assumed control of the National Socialist German Workers, otherwise known as the Nazis. But the US was not involved until the Japanese suddenly
Shortly after the attack on American soil, they decided to land in and attack Clark Air Base that was in the Philippines which at the time was under control of the British, an ally of the Americans. The force at Clark Air Base was well aware of the Japanese's coming, but none of the aircraft of the air base were in the air; the Japanese were rubbing their eyes in disbelief. After this attack, the Japanese was the unchallenged master of the Pacific and Indian oceans. If Pearl Harbor was informed, they would have been able to take down all of the Japanese aircraft that were involved with the attacks; then would the entire history books be different. The Americans would have had substantial amount of troops for war and positioning of the air bases would increase the efforts in winning the war. Now with Germany in the picture, the US would have a greater force entering the European wars. Not saying the amount we sent wasn't adequate, but still a greater army in size would probably decrease casualty amounts for our army and decreased the amount of time spent into the war. A less devastating attack on Pearl Harbor would have made a great
Mainly, the Japanese-Americans and anyone that resembled Japanese culture were affected by the reactions of other American citizens. First, the American Japanese's privacy and rights were basically taken away from them. They were constantly watched by investigators, phone wires were tapped, and even mail and interactions amongst one another were being watched upon. Suspicion led one accusation to another. The Japanese immigrants or citizens were all taken from their homes and they were told "they were being moved into a safer environment." That was a great misleading deception. These "safer environments" were nothing more than Japanese American Relocation Camps. Amongst these people were wealthy Japanese that were stripped of their high professions, land, homes, and possessions. They were forced to move to camps in the Southwestern United States. About 120,000 innocent people were sent to these horrible camps just because they were Japanese or had any traceable amount of Japanese in them. After 9/11 we didn't send Middle Eastern people or anyone with Middle Eastern decent into relocation camps. Was this a right act? Most Japanese before relocation were small landowners in California and alone produced 35% of California's crop production. They had a great population in the western coast. Their land then was seized and sold to white